TASM 2: Emma Stone Says Gwen Saves Spidey More Than He Saves Her

In the latest issue of Total Film, Stone reveals that her character Gwen Stacy will be more than just the standard damsel in distress in Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man sequel. "He's the muscle, she's the brains", the actress tells the mag. Read on for more.

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By Mark Cassidy - 1/4/2014

In superhero flicks it can be very easy to relegate the female lead to damsel in distress (just look at Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies for example), but going by what Emma Stone tells Total Film, that won't be the case in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. When asked how many times Spidey (Andrew Garfield) saver Gwen in the movie, Stone replies: "Not many. I can think of one important instance. She saves him more than he saves her. She's incredibly helpful to Spider-Man... He's the muscle, she's the brains." Could this one instance be more of an attempted save? Comic fans won't need an explanation for that! But Stone also suggests that Gwen won't be too involved in the action this time around. "I don't get to do too many crazy stunts. She gets herself in the middle of stuff, that's for sure! I do get webbed to a car. There's shit like that." For more be sure to pick up the latest issue of Total Film.

"I can't believe i'm actually rooting for the Main protagonist to kill the Main love interest. lol.. But it must be done."-intruder

I do believe I share the same sentiment. I feel quite evil about it too (Stewie-ish). But I'm worried. Will they have the balls to kill off the main character? There are so many nerds in love with this unremarkable woman.

@Havenless more like, villain's plan in the first movie is to attack the entire city with an experimental device (Ganali Device/ Mirowave Emitter) created by the central company (Oscorp/Wayne Enterprises) in the movie which delivers a chemical gas (Fear Toxin/Lizard Serum) to the population, while the main character must learn to be a hero, inspired by the loss of his parents (or in Peter's case, his parents AND his Uncle).Then, the second film introduces the main character's arch-nemesis (Green Goblin/Joker) and a character who was formerly friends with/admired the hero but was transformed (Electro AND Harry Osborn/Two-Face), and (presumable) the hero fails to save the life of his romantic interest (Gwen/Rachel).

Clearly The Amazing Spider-Man series is taking heavy inspiration from The Dark Knight Trilogy and is following many of the same story beats, because Batman and Spider-Man are two incredibly similar characters at their core (lonely geniuses who've lost parents and become superheroes). And there's been something of a back-and-forth between their different film versions as well - Raimi's Spider-Man movies are clearly influenced by Burton's Batman movies, the tone of Nolan's Batman movies is possibly an evolution of the tone of Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and now Marc Webb's new version of Spider-Man is following the precedent set by Nolan's Batman trilogy. Of course, what's more important is how they change things up each time.

I see zero similarity between Burton's Batman and Raimi's Spider-Man series. The tone of the series are opposites. I think if anything Raimi has a similar tone to Donner's Superman, but having watched Raimi films for over 20 years I say all he did is do his own thing!

And Spider-Man and Batman aren't similar! Outside of a deep rouges gallery and dead parents there's not much. Spideys main villains (in the films) were scientists and Peter's friends and not psychopaths with deformities.

And the films take their stories from comics. I don't think they copied Nolan other than to take the plot a little more seriously rather than the lighter take of Raimi. I love TDK series but Nolan isn't the end all be all in comics films!

Remember in Batman Begins when Bruce's scientist parents had to leave him with his aunt and uncle and bailed because they were being hunted for their work and eventually killed in a crash? And then Ra's Al Ghul changed into a giant reptile and then fought Bruce in his high school just like TASM....yeah.

This is becoming very lazy and predictable. Every filmmaker is trying so hard not to have the damsel in distress that they're making the damsels rescue the "heroes" in every movie. It's okay once and a while, but it's starting to be a little trite. Peter Parker is exceptionally intelligent. You don't have to dumb him down just so Gwen can seem smarter. They are starting to hurt the quality of our heroes in the name of political correctness.

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